JZ jet smacks of Mobutu
THE Young Communist League said yesterday it would be irresponsible to buy a R4billion jet for President Jacob Zuma when the country’s gross domestic product growth was just 1.2%, with high levels of income inequality, deepening poverty and high levels of unemployment among the youth.
“This kind of spending resembles that of Mobutu Sese Seko, who lived a comfortable life at the expense of ordinary Congolese,” said Young Communist League KwaZulu Natal chairman Sandile Dayi.
“We are opposed to this senseless spending. We view this as a slap in the face of those who languish in poverty, especially after the controversy relating to the R246 million spent in the name of Nkandla security upgrades.”
The party said that if there was any succession debate, it had been opened by those who had said they were ready for a woman president, a veiled reference to the ANC Women’s League which had adopted this resolution.
The women’s and youth leagues have been accused of advancing the agenda of a powerful bloc of premiers of Mpumalanga, the Free State and the North West that want to see their candidates take over the ANC in 2017.
Dayi said all the SACP’s general secretary, Blade Nzimande, had said was that “it is wrong that our movement must experience turmoil every time it enters into a period of leadership transition”.
The league called on Zuma to speak out against people who divided the alliance using his name.
It accused the ANC Youth League of factionalism after the latter had called for Nzimande’s suspension.
The youth league had accused Nzimande of failing to play by the rules on succession talk after he had apparently insinuated that the SACP was “tired” of defending Zuma.
The Young Communist League said the call that Nzimande should be suspended was “factional and a piece of rubbish” that must be condemned.
The war of words between the two leagues comes at a crucial time for the tripartite alliance heading into next year’s local government elections.
This also comes amid growing unhappiness in Cosatu over government pension reforms that saw the union threaten a possibility of not campaigning for the ANC if the policy was not reversed.